COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago (Local Updates & Discussions Only)

[Dohplaydat]

by december so, the numbers will turn down. u will reach a peak infection rate, and it will be harder to find new hosts.

the only solution that could make a difference would be to cancel carnival 2021

NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN !!

Jus postpone it to May...

End of April makes the most sense but I'm happy with any carnival in second quarter of the 2021.

[88sins]

But any reason why you purposely did not answer the issue of quarantine breaches? Do you support this?

Is it that you being a “Trini” excludes you from doing your part or is it only your Venezuelan enemies are to blame for community spread? Do you have any positive suggestions/solutions on this aspect or does your tunnel vision only see from one end?

Btw where is your proof of Illegal vessels entering T&T? How many boats come in daily? Do you have photos or video footage? What do you have to show for your assumptions? Where are you getting this info? Have you reported this?

Trinis are busy pointing fingers and blaming the Venezuelans when they themselves are the ROOT cause of community spread.

I don't usually answer jackass questions, but since you braying loudly enough...
Locals breaching quarantine is an issue, yes. Explaining my possible solution to the aspect of failed quarantine for locals will take longer for me to type than I willing to spend.
However your precious illegal vene trespassers aren't as innocent in this regard as you'd beg some to believe. Didn't 3 of them quite recently make the news when they willfully escaped quarantine at a state facility? How many Trinis did similarly so far? I hear some break down a door & some unruly behavior for "fresh air" but I heard nothing of them leaving the facilities before they were discharged & free to do so.


Now, since our airports & borders have been locked down from & the entry of non nationals for months now & currently remain so, & considering that up to the month of July we had our cases under control less than 300 (coincidentally, shortly before that time cases in venezuela skyrocketed from a few hundred to over 17,000 iirc) and GoRTT has admitted to many undocumented venezuelan nationals being tested & proven + for the virus, how do you think they came here? I go make it easy for you, you can answer as a multiple choice by selecting any one of the following

A-They running on water like Dashiel in The Incredibles.
B-They have a giant slingshot in venezuela & they launch themselves airborne the 4 miles across the water with it.
C- Most of them are half breed Atlantians so they preferably swim to reach here.
D-They arrive by sea on a boat & disembark at an unsecured section of the border.

Unless you fix problem A (specifically illegal migrants) , you will forever have to deal with problem B (sick trinis), unless you plan on keeping every single T&T national in home quarantine for the next 3 years

[The_Honourable]

Well imagine my shock

Concerns over new swab testing policy



Concerns are again being raised about insufficient testing after the Ministry of Health cut down on the swabbing of asymptomatic primary contacts of COVID-19 positive patients.

The new criteria for swabbing started last week after members of the health team were given specific instructions not to swab primary contacts if they were not displaying any symptoms of the virus.

A Ministry of Health source, who requested anonymity, said many members of the county surveillance units were incensed by this development, saying a reduction of swabbing and testing may reduce statistics but will also not show the enormity of community clusters.

“If a COVID positive patient lives in the same house with his family and was using the same kitchen and the same bathroom or bedroom, there is a great likelihood that his family will also be positive. But based on the new criteria, if the family is not showing symptoms, they are not swabbed. They are expected to remain in quarantine at home but without being tested, there is no indication for those primary contacts to be deemed positive even though they may very well be positive,” the source said.

Saying many COVID-positive patients were unable to self-isolate at home because of space constraints, the official said the ministry has not been making adequate provisions to accommodate these patients in facilities.

“Additionally, 24,000 test done only represents 1.71 per cent of the population, which is not enough testing and 2,000 of these are repeated tests,” the source said.

Saying the decrease in tests will bring down the high numbers, the source said this is why the figures have been reduced drastically in recent days, compared to two weeks ago when over 100 people were testing positive in a day.

But speaking at the Ministry of Health’s press conference on Tuesday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said changes had been made to the way swabbing was being done.

“As it relates to our policy on swabbing, we swab anyone who is a primary contact generally. However, there are certain groups we did slight amendments. Persons who have developed symptoms post-dating the original person that would have tested positive, seeing as we would have gone to home isolation. Those persons that were pre-dating the person that was positive in terms of symptomology—we are swabbing them right away,” Parasram said.

He added, “The asymptomatic cases we would swab thereafter if need be but they would be monitored for the full duration of 21 days. The primary contacts outside of a household, whether they are symptomatic or not, we will continue to swab those as per usual.”

Responding to comments from Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis at the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Regional Office Marcos Espinal, who said that T&T was not doing enough testing to know the extent of the pandemic, Parasram said the ministry has always followed PAHO and Ministry of Health’s guidelines.

“From the beginning, we have been testing based on a case definition. We have been testing symptomatic people from day one,” Parasram said.

“We test people who come to our facilities. We don’t go to people’s home to do testing unless you’re a primary contact or a case at home in your family, so we have abided by PAHO guidelines and WHO guidelines in terms of their clinical case definition for testing from day one.”

He added, “There has been a considerable increase in testing over the last month and this has been so because we have seen a lot more viral illness presenting at our facilities.”

Up to yesterday, 23,934 samples were sent for testing at CARPHA with 2,922 tests being repeated. The testing rate in T&T is currently at five per cent. Espinal said Mauritius in East Africa, which has a population comparable to T&T, has done over 200,000 tests in comparison to T&T’s almost 24,000.

Source: https://www.cnc3.co.tt/concerns-over-ne ... ng-policy/

[pugboy]

wouldn’t be surprised if it was the imps man who don’t want to spend the money

[redmanjp]

When it turn down is when they go open up for carnival

by december so, the numbers will turn down. u will reach a peak infection rate, and it will be harder to find new hosts.

the only solution that could make a difference would be to cancel carnival 2021

unless we go back down to 0 cases or only a few cases that u can trace through contacts, not those pending investigation it will be catastrophic to have a festival like Carnival with thousands of ppl in either the fetes or the Monday & Tuesday parade. they will have to ban both of those, and just allow spectator less Calypso & Pan competitions or something.

[pugboy]

we will never get zero cases for long with the bawders open
unless of course we get even stingier with testing

[MaxPower]

But any reason why you purposely did not answer the issue of quarantine breaches? Do you support this?

Is it that you being a “Trini” excludes you from doing your part or is it only your Venezuelan enemies are to blame for community spread? Do you have any positive suggestions/solutions on this aspect or does your tunnel vision only see from one end?

Btw where is your proof of Illegal vessels entering T&T? How many boats come in daily? Do you have photos or video footage? What do you have to show for your assumptions? Where are you getting this info? Have you reported this?

Trinis are busy pointing fingers and blaming the Venezuelans when they themselves are the ROOT cause of community spread.

I don't usually answer jackass questions, but since you braying loudly enough...
Locals breaching quarantine is an issue, yes. Explaining my possible solution to the aspect of failed quarantine for locals will take longer for me to type than I willing to spend.
However your precious illegal vene trespassers aren't as innocent in this regard as you'd beg some to believe. Didn't 3 of them quite recently make the news when they willfully escaped quarantine at a state facility? How many Trinis did similarly so far? I hear some break down a door & some unruly behavior for "fresh air" but I heard nothing of them leaving the facilities before they were discharged & free to do so.


Now, since our airports & borders have been locked down from & the entry of non nationals for months now & currently remain so, & considering that up to the month of July we had our cases under control less than 300 (coincidentally, shortly before that time cases in venezuela skyrocketed from a few hundred to over 17,000 iirc) and GoRTT has admitted to many undocumented venezuelan nationals being tested & proven + for the virus, how do you think they came here? I go make it easy for you, you can answer as a multiple choice by selecting any one of the following

A-They running on water like Dashiel in The Incredibles.
B-They have a giant slingshot in venezuela & they launch themselves airborne the 4 miles across the water with it.
C- Most of them are half breed Atlantians so they preferably swim to reach here.
D-They arrive by sea on a boat & disembark at an unsecured section of the border.

Unless you fix problem A (specifically illegal migrants) , you will forever have to deal with problem B (sick trinis), unless you plan on keeping every single T&T national in home quarantine for the next 3 years

Thank you Reek.

Good stuff.

[redmanjp]

we will never get zero cases for long with the bawders open
unless of course we get even stingier with testing

i doh know how they will do that- the more untested infected ppl there are out there the more spread u will get and more cases- so if lower numbers is their goal they shooting themselves in the foot

u want lower numbers u test and quarantine every infected person- asymptomatic or not- u will get plenty initially but u are breaking the chain of infection so it will go down eventually

and as studies show with most ppl wearing masks most infections going to be asymptomatic except for those who disobey the mask laws

[Blaze d Chalice]

Don't cancel Carnival.

Just postpone it "indefinitely" like the roadworks, water/wasa, flooding, crime etc situations.

[Dohplaydat]

We can only have Carnival if we get the vaccine at least 2 months prior. Oxford Zeneca is ramping up production already and should easily have a 1B+ ready to disperse throughout the world by end of the year.

Assuming we get it and start mass innoculations in Jan/Feb, we can have Carnival in April.

Reverlers/Feters/Workers participating will all have to be vaccinated and show proof of it via a wristband or something otherwise they cannot partake.

Forigners arriving for the event (if not vaccinated) will have to present a negative covid test (taken within the last 48 hours) and should have to report for testing every 14 days when in Trinidad.

It would be an awesome PR story if Trini was technically one of the last carnivals prior to worldwide lockdowns and then be the one of the first to host carnival in a post covid world.

Remember, this isn't just fun and games, we NEED carnival to stimulate the economy as XMAS will be an economic dud this year.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

CDC documents say states should prepare to distribute Covid-19 vaccines as soon as late October

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told public health officials around the United States to prepare to distribute a potential coronavirus vaccine as soon as late October. It also provided planning scenarios to help states prepare.

The documents were posted by The New York Times and the CDC confirmed to CNN it has sent them to city and state public health officials.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/02/heal ... index.html

I thought CDC was an independent body?
Seems they pushing for this vaccine to be released just in time for US elections
Or is it just coincidence?

[maj. tom]

History has many warnings about early vaccines that have not been fully tested. I hope this won't be one of them.

[pugboy]

most of carnival money ends up in private hands tho

We can only have Carnival if we get the vaccine at least 2 months prior. Oxford Zeneca is ramping up production already and should easily have a 1B+ ready to disperse throughout the world by end of the year.

Assuming we get it and start mass innoculations in Jan/Feb, we can have Carnival in April.

Reverlers/Feters/Workers participating will all have to be vaccinated and show proof of it via a wristband or something otherwise they cannot partake.

Forigners arriving for the event (if not vaccinated) will have to present a negative covid test (taken within the last 48 hours) and should have to report for testing every 14 days when in Trinidad.

It would be an awesome PR story if Trini was technically one of the last carnivals prior to worldwide lockdowns and then be the one of the first to host carnival in a post covid world.

Remember, this isn't just fun and games, we NEED carnival to stimulate the economy as XMAS will be an economic dud this year.

[Dohplaydat]

most of carnival money ends up in private hands tho

We can only have Carnival if we get the vaccine at least 2 months prior. Oxford Zeneca is ramping up production already and should easily have a 1B+ ready to disperse throughout the world by end of the year.

Assuming we get it and start mass innoculations in Jan/Feb, we can have Carnival in April.

Reverlers/Feters/Workers participating will all have to be vaccinated and show proof of it via a wristband or something otherwise they cannot partake.

Forigners arriving for the event (if not vaccinated) will have to present a negative covid test (taken within the last 48 hours) and should have to report for testing every 14 days when in Trinidad.

It would be an awesome PR story if Trini was technically one of the last carnivals prior to worldwide lockdowns and then be the one of the first to host carnival in a post covid world.

Remember, this isn't just fun and games, we NEED carnival to stimulate the economy as XMAS will be an economic dud this year.

Yea that's actually a good thing, carnival benefits 1000s of small businesses and entrepreneurs during the season.

[88sins]

History has many warnings about early vaccines that have not been fully tested. I hope this won't be one of them.

Glad to know I ain't the only one wondering about this.
I say let the guinea pigs go first, see if you can ride it out and avoid infection for about 6 months to a year. That should be enough time for the major side effects and long after effects to at least start to kick in and be known.

[pugboy]

don’t forget those hyped up dates likely only announced to try keep the economies from panicking further

[shake d livin wake d dead]

History has many warnings about early vaccines that have not been fully tested. I hope this won't be one of them.

Glad to know I ain't the only one wondering about this.
I say let the guinea pigs go first, see if you can ride it out and avoid infection for about 6 months to a year. That should be enough time for the major side effects and long after effects to at least start to kick in and be known.

By the time that vaccine reaches us...it would have been tried, tested, tried again, killed a few, infected many and then it would be a vaccine.

[redmanjp]

43 + 1 death. almost 2000!

[Blaze d Chalice]

Getting it done

[paid_influencer]

how many deaths per week are we at now?

[sMASH]

When it turn down is when they go open up for carnival

by december so, the numbers will turn down. u will reach a peak infection rate, and it will be harder to find new hosts.

the only solution that could make a difference would be to cancel carnival 2021

unless we go back down to 0 cases or only a few cases that u can trace through contacts, not those pending investigation it will be catastrophic to have a festival like Carnival with thousands of ppl in either the fetes or the Monday & Tuesday parade. they will have to ban both of those, and just allow spectator less Calypso & Pan competitions or something.

i want to say, the catastrophe started with carnival 2020. yes, the 'sunlight kills covid' theory. cause the normal regular run of the mill virus is fought by the imune system, which is boosted by the vitamin d. and the research that duane shows, supports that vitamin D is good against covid. and the second thing is, all that time was so dry and hot and not as humid cause sahara dust, for days and days on end, that virus particles could not survive as long outside the body and remain as potent as it could.

so, u had the weakened and inhibited spread, the human bodies combating it better, and the jackass restrictions on testing the population, that allowed for the virus to be spread, be weaker versions for the most part, but go undetected in any case. we had deaths and cases, but they werent tested for, but most people were asymtomatic for the most part. it was quasi latent, cause if we did 'test test test' we woulda pick up on some numbers.

then when the weather change, the virus coudl be stronger outside and last longer, the bodies' immune systems got weaker(flu season), increased testing to detect more cases, and then the super spreader activity of election campaign.

the perfect storm


the virus was there in the population, all along. it just got boosted by the election campaigning, and on the other fronts at that same time.

[redmanjp]

if it was present even when we had 0 cases in weeks it could of only been a few asymptomatic cases. but for weeks we had 0 positive community tests. this wave wasn't from March, this came in in July with the venes. Venezuela cases were beginning to surge recently

[Dohplaydat]

how many deaths per week are we at now?

From August 14th to now we've had 21 deaths which averages 7 per week.

But deaths lag cases and our number of cases isn't going down so expect roughly 10 per week from now on.

[Dohplaydat]

if it was present even when we had 0 cases in weeks it could of only been a few asymptomatic cases. but for weeks we had 0 positive community tests. this wave wasn't from March, this came in in July with the venes. Venezuela cases were beginning to surge recently

Well you can't have cases if the government don't test. Before reopening government was supposed to test as much front line workers and random volunteers as possible. Instead, we said everything was safe and made everyone put their guard down.

That, plus lockdown fatigue from an unnecessarily hard lockdown, and elections, is why we're hear today. You can blame Venezuelans of course too but it's likely covid was here all along.

[adnj]

how many deaths per week are we at now?

From August 14th to now we've had 21 deaths which averages 7 per week.

But deaths lag cases and our number of cases isn't going down so expect roughly 10 per week from now on.

Current models predict 42 deaths by October 1 and more than 1 million deaths worldwide.

[Dohplaydat]

how many deaths per week are we at now?

From August 14th to now we've had 21 deaths which averages 7 per week.

But deaths lag cases and our number of cases isn't going down so expect roughly 10 per week from now on.

Current models predict 42 deaths by October 1 and more than 1 million deaths worldwide.

Is that 42 new deaths or a total of 42 deaths by Oct 1st (meaning 12 more? 41-29).

[pugboy]

Well at least if the testing figures are skewed due to lack of testing or number manipulation delaying
One thing for sure they can’t manipulate death figures......

if it was present even when we had 0 cases in weeks it could of only been a few asymptomatic cases. but for weeks we had 0 positive community tests. this wave wasn't from March, this came in in July with the venes. Venezuela cases were beginning to surge recently

Well you can't have cases if the government don't test. Before reopening government was supposed to test as much front line workers and random volunteers as possible. Instead, we said everything was safe and made everyone put their guard down.

That, plus lockdown fatigue from an unnecessarily hard lockdown, and elections, is why we're hear today. You can blame Venezuelans of course too but it's likely covid was here all along.

[neilsingh100]

New cases seems to holding at the peak of 60-70 / day for over 1 week now which is strange since it suppose to start gradually declining by now. From what I hearing there is little to no enforcement for positive cases that were told to home quarantine so looks like MOH strategy is herd immunity or a vaccine at this point.

[paid_influencer]

New cases seems to holding at the peak of 60-70 / day for over 1 week now which is strange since it suppose to start gradually declining by now. From what I hearing there is little to no enforcement for positive cases that were told to home quarantine so looks like MOH strategy is herd immunity or a vaccine at this point.

the strategy is "learning to live with the virus"

(don't be elderly with pre-existing conditions)

[Numb3r4]

(don't be elderly with pre-existing conditions)

Isn't that like every body at this point....

Who doesn't have a pre-existing condition?